Uh-Oh. Overpaid Settlement Plaintiffs Asked to Return Cash

A company that sent $289 million in settlement checks to about 88,000 plaintiffs admits it made a mistake.

Because of an administrative error, Gilardi & Co. failed to pay about 2,000 people in the settlement of a fraud suit against Computer Associates International, the Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.). That means the settlement plaintiffs who did get the money were overpaid to the tune of $60 million.

About 3,000 investors with the biggest losses were also overpaid the most—$16,700 on average, the newspaper says.

U.S. District Judge I. Leo Glasser of Brooklyn has ordered the overpayments returned—by Jan. 4. There’s no word from Gilardi’s chief operations officer on what will happen if the money isn’t turned over.

“We are expecting to have the amounts returned,” he told the newspaper.